Radio Sweethearts

What you see above may not seem like it, but it is among the longest drives you can make. Psychologically, anyway.

Were it longer, it could take more than one day – which would be preferable, as you would be able to sleep. Instead, it takes eight hours to get from Memphis to my parents’ house in Indiana, which is just enough of the day to require you to take the whole day off work, and to plan on doing nothing once you finally arrive.

(That said, Kerry and I both worked half days on Thursday, knowing full well that we’d be obscenely exhausted upon arrival in Indiana.)

Some things I’ve noticed:

1. A drive that long is bad for podcasts. Two and a half hours is my limit for time spent as Ira Glass’ captive audience. Oddly, if I’m not driving, that time limit is doubled.
2. The Memphis-Nashville segment of the drive is the perfect amount of time to listen to Magnetic Fields’ “69 Love Songs” and about the only way you’ll be sitting in one place long enough to take the thing in all at once.
3. Two of the four greatest radio stations in the world broadcast along the route. Memphis’ WEVL and Louisville’s WFPK  (The others being Los Angeles’ KCRW and New Jersey’s WFMU) are both fantastic listener-supported  stations that focus on music, rather than news content – all apologies to our friends who work at NPR news programs, sometimes I just want some rock.

And if, as is often the case, I get tired of my iPod on the drive, it’s often as invigorating to pop the tape adapter out of the tape deck and tune in these stations as it is to roll down the window and shout along to the Hold Steady.

Or as invigorating to pour an ice cold energy drink over my head and tear my shirt in two, but I only tried that once.

They’re all streaming online, as all radio stations worth their weight in radio waves do. Go listen.